Friday, April 27, 2012

Artist: Slik Toxik, Album: Doin' The Nasty, Song: Helluvatime

"Hold on tight, we're headed for a helluvatime." Slik Toxik were a rock band from Toronto, Ontario. They were formed by members Nick Walsh and Dave Mercel in 1988. These two individuals were in a couple of bands together during the mid eighties before morphing into Slik Toxik. Mercel would end up relinquishing his role as bassist and contribute lyrics for the band. Slik Toxik was immediately snapped up by EMI Records in 1991. Their full length debut entitled, Doin' The Nasty, was released in 1992 and it went gold on the strength of 4 successful singles. One of them was this rocker entitled, Helluvatime. You can check out the video on You Tube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2R6Eek56pzU). This album was massive for a genre of music in decline. Metal was on the outs and it would prove to be the band's fatal blow in the end. However, they still were nominated for two Junos in 1993 for this release. They won Hard Rock Album Of The Year but lost the award for Most Promising Group that year to The Skydiggers (see blog 9/13/11). The band would sever ties with their label and release their sophomore album independently in 1994 before breaking up shortly thereafter. This band's career would have been longer if the timing were better. They were Nick Walsh, Kevin Gale, Patric Howarth, Rob Bruce and Neal Busby. Walsh and Bruce would go on to form the band, Raised On Mars, for one release. You can check out some of their work at http://raisedonmars.tripod.com/. Following that, Walsh would form the band, Revolver, and more currently, Famous Underground. The latter released their debut album last year and you can follow them at http://www.famousunderground.tv/. As for Slik Toxik, their albums are very rare today. At the time of this blog, there were copies trading on Ebay between $10 and $40. Thanks for reading and enjoy!